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Chapter XVI. The Yiddish Language
Key questions
1. Features of Yiddish as a Germanic language.
2. Social History of the Formation and Development of the Yiddish language.
3. Dialectal differentiation of the Yiddish language.
4. The Problem of the Norm in Yiddish.
5. Features of the Yiddish language.
The Yiddish {Yid. yidish,= n. & adj. "Jewish") is a nonterritorial Germanic language spoken throughout the world and written with the Hebrew alphabet. It originated in the Ashkenazi culture that developed from about the 10th century in central and eastern Europe, and spread via emigration to other continents. In the earliest surviving references to it, the language is called loshn-ashkenaz (n. "language of the Ashkenazi") and taytsh, a variant of tiutsch, the contemporary name for the language otherwise spoken in the region, now called Middle High German; compare the modern Deutsch). In common usage, the language is called mameloshn (n. "mother tongue"), distinguishing it from biblical Hebrew and Aramaic which are collectively termed loshn-koydesh (n. "holy tongue"). The term Yiddish did not become the most frequently used designation in the literature of the language until the 18th century, but for a significant portion of its history it was the primary spoken language of the Ashkenazi Jews.
The word yidish means Jewish both as a noun and as an adjective. Anglophone members of the Ashkenazi community also use the words Yiddish and Jewish synonymously, in both senses. The two terms thus interchangeably designate not only the language, but also other attributes of Ashkenazi culture. (For example, in general English language discussion of Yiddish culture reference is frequently made to such things as Yiddish cooking and Yiddish music.)
Origins
The Ashkenazi culture that was taking root in 10th century Central Europe derived its name from Ashkenaz, the medieval Hebrew name for Germany (Genesis 10:3). Its geographic extent did not coincide with the German Christian principalities, and Ashkenaz included Northern France. It also bordered on the area inhabited by the Sephardi, or Spanish Jews, which ranged into southern France. Later, the Ashkenazi territory would spread into Eastern Europe as well.
Nothing is known about the vernacular of the earliest Jews in Germany, but several theories have been put forward. It is generally accepted that it was likely to have contained elements from other languages of the Near East and Europe absorbed through dispersion. Since many settlers came via northern France, it is also likely that the Romance-based Jewish language of that region was represented. Traces of this remain in the modern Yiddish vocabulary, particularly in Western Yiddish; for example, bentshn, (to say a blessing said after dining), from the Latin benedicere, and the Western Yiddish.orn (to pray), from the Latin orare.
The first language of European Jews may also have been Aramaic, the vernacular of the Jews in Roman era Palestine, and ancient and early medieval Mesopotamia. The widespread use of Aramaic among the large non-Jewish Syrian trading population of the Roman provinces, including those in Europe, would have reinforced the use of Aramaic among Jews engaged in trade.
Members of the young Ashkenazi community would have encountered the myriad dialects from which standard German was destined to emerge many centuries later. They would soon have been speaking their own versions of these German dialects, mixed with linguistic elements that they themselves brought into the region. These dialects would have adapted to the needs of the burgeoning Ashkenazi culture and may, as characterizes many such developments, have included the deliberate cultivation of linguistic differences to assert cultural autonomy. The Ashkenazi community also had its own geography, with a pattern of relationships among settlements that was somewhat independent of its non-Jewish neighbors. This led to the consolidation of Yiddish dialects, the borders of which did not coincide with the borders of German dialects.
The further development of the Eastern Yiddish dialects involved the absorption of many words from Slavic languages.
The oldest surviving literary document in Yiddish is a blessing in a Hebrew prayer book from 1272.
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